


And At Last I See The Light

by Coraleeveritas



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, F/M, Inspired by Tangled (2010)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 03:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21385222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coraleeveritas/pseuds/Coraleeveritas
Summary: Prince Jaime was no fair maiden, but after eighteen years locked up in a castle, he sure as hells felt like one.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 12
Kudos: 111





	And At Last I See The Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SandwichesYumYum](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandwichesYumYum/gifts).

> I've been struggling with writing again but this fairytale type AU sprung to mind one night I couldn't sleep and I even feel some sense of accomplishment finishing this first little bit. 
> 
> Thank you to hellyjellybean for her comments and guidance :)
> 
> Anything you recognise doesn't belong to me, I'm just borrowing from GoT, Disney and original fairytales and twisting it all up a bit.

Prince Jaime was no fair maiden, but after eighteen years locked up in a castle, he sure as hells felt like one. It wasn't all bad, being a Prince of the Westerlands, though Jaime didn't have much to compare it to. Living in the castle was all he'd ever known, after all, since his parents untimely deaths had left him an orphan when he was still in swaddling clothes. With no family to speak of, the barren Queen of a neighbouring kingdom had taken him in and raised him as one of her own. On the good days, Jaime supposed the alliance had opened the hearts of the small folk and brought about a long lasting peace, but on the bad, he knew she had meant it as a power play. One that hadn't quite been brought to fruition just yet.

The Queen of the Westerlands had allowed him a certain degree of luxury growing up; prized stallions for him to prance around on in the courtyards, the best tutors from every forgotten town in the Seven Kingdoms, even a joust in the grounds every year on his name day, but there was no bending the one rule that had been in place since Jaime was old enough to remember such things. The Red Keep was the safest place in the entire known world and he was never, ever, to step outside it's gates. Which had been fine, when he was smaller, and still scared of the cutthroats and hedge knights that were prone to kidnapping princes. (Well, not really, but Jaime had at least accepted that he would never get to live out his dream of competing in a real tourney, especially after the Queen had taken the head of a guard who'd dared to take him outside ten years earlier.) That is, it had been fine until the blue knight rode into town on a borrowed palace horse with truth in her heart and a noble quest on her mind.

There hadn't been anything particularly unusual about the day Jaime first met the only knight he'd ever known that was sworn to a different sovereign. Nothing to mark it out as being the day everything was about to, once again, irreversibly change for him. The sky was a bright shade of blue that seemed synonymous with the Westerlands in high summer, the clouds merely wisps of white that drifted above the heads of the small folk that worked the fields he could see from his chamber window, the guards outside his door changing exactly every six hours. They all had their routines and so did Jaime, though his was a little less exciting than even common labourers or terrified servants. When he'd been younger, after the Queen had adopted him, there had been a daily rotation of maesters and septons and masters of arms all sent to teach him how to be a proper courtier with proper manners and just enough combat experience to be competent but never a threat. He'd begged the Queen for the chance to be a squire in one of the far off lands the maesters spoke off, but his pleas had only led to those particular books being confiscated and a new wise man arriving the next day. He kept his dreams to himself after that, drawing and painting through his lessons when he could, when the letters jumbled before his eyes but the pictures never did. When the strange violet eyed man from Dorne brought him disguised books full of empty pages for new stories, ready to be filled with damsels and dwarves and destiny, it set off a new dream in Jaime, one that he still longed to live out.

Even though the Queen's Council had deemed him to be grown, his dreams had not changed. The desire to compete in a joust or a melee even grew stronger as the days turned into months and then years. Especially as the older he got, the less there was to distinguish between the time spent breaking his fast, working in the War Room, though he'd been told no War had ever touched the Westerlands since before his birth, and retiring to his chamber for the night. His dreams of what could lie beyond their kingdom border became all he had to hold on to.

Jaime certainly didn't expect on the most monotonous of days, running through potential attack scenarios again and again and again until his eyes were crossed and his head ached, that his own destiny would simply ride up to the castle gates and demand an audience with the Queen.

Although the lands beyond the drawbridge were out of bounds, the courtyards had never been subject to the same rule, and with one speedily whispered apology to the men frowning at stationary figures on a wooden board meant to represent their enemies, Jaime was bounding down the stairs to get a better look at their visitor, feeling like a child again.

As the knight's helm was removed, they took the time to survey every inch of the neatly swept courtyard, locking eyes with Jaime for one heart stopping second.

Nobody had ever taught him that women could be knights, too.

She was, well, rather unfortunate looking if he was being honest, but her horse was whiter than freshly fallen snow and the shine from her sapphire blue armour nearly blinded the guards as it caught the sun. Something warm settled in the pit of Jaime's stomach as she caught him staring, a scowl passing over her brow, disrupting the constellations of freckles that dusted her pale skin and making her bluer than blue eyes shine. He didn't hear what she said to the men, but whatever it was, it was enough to be deemed worthy of meeting with the Council. She would, like anyone else, even Jaime on occasion, have to beg to speak to their Queen.

She had made him beg for other things, too, her affections fleeting and forever changing even with her adopted child, but the lady knight showed no such disdain as he sidled up to her. It would have been comical how she towered over the brightest of the Queen's guards, having maybe even an inch or so on Jaime himself now they were close enough to notice such things, had he not been focused on formulating a plan to spend some time with the stranger before she was sent, disappointed, on her way.

It had been a long time indeed since he'd been able to talk to someone from the outside world.

"May I join you?" Jaime asked the youngest guardsman trusted with the task of taking their visitor to the Great Hall. "After all day in the war rooms, I find I need to stretch my legs and there's nothing better than a stroll through the halls."

To his great surprise, she blushed as he ended the blustering sentence with a grin in her direction. Her freckled cheeks danced through a series of colourful partners, from pinks he'd only seen in the rose garden to the deepest red found hanging from the apple tree by his bedroom window. Though anyone in their right mind could see the knight was too tall, too broad, too ugly to also be considered a beautiful woman, Jaime was surprised that he felt more interest than revulsion as he fell in step with her.

"Did you come far, my lady?" he began politely, biting his tongue from asking the questions he really wanted answers to. It wouldn't help anyone if Jaime scared away the first person to come to the castle in years before she had a chance to really talk to him.

"I'm no lady," she replied gruffly. "The King has enough ladies."

"Should I address you as 'Ser', then?" he smiled and this time her gaze didn't falter. "Though I can't imagine there's another knight like you in the barracks."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Does it have to mean anything more than what I said?"

"Usually, yes." She sighed deeply, her pretty eyes rolling for a second. "He said this was going to be difficult, I just didn't think..."

"Who said what?" Jaime narrowed his eyes, stepping in front of the knight to stop her from following the guards further.

"He...I-I...Your brother said that, Prince Jaime. I know you have no way of believing this, but your brother sent me."

"I don't have a brother," he retorted, though there was already a fuzzy memory worrying away at the back of his mind at the mention of that word. "And if I had, the Queen would have taken him, too."

"Is that what she's been telling you?" The blue eyed knight shook her head, wisps of straw blonde hair threatening to part with her braids. "You are Jaime Lannister, of Casterly Rock. Son and heir of...don't you remember anything before you were taken?"

Finding himself rendered speechless for too long a moment, something that had never happened to him before, Jaime prickled with anger.

"Who in the hells do you think you are to ask me something like that? I thought you were a knight, not some common serving wench sent to trick me. I don't..." he trailed off suddenly, the lie feeling heavy on his tongue. "I don't remember anything. This was a mistake. I should go back to the war room."

"Prince Jaime? Your brother did send me," she whispered again as he tried to make as quick an exit as possible, though he was no knight, merely an orphaned boy adopted by a great and terrible Queen. "My name is Brienne of Tarth and I'm here to rescue you."

**Author's Note:**

> More to come in this AU, though I can't promise when.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
